In the past few sets, Planeswalker has been
pushed to the sidelines. The last powerful planeswalker we got were Ugin,
Eye of the Storm and Elspeth, Stormslayer from Tarkir Dragonstorm,
yet they saw fringe play at best in Standard and only Ugin, Eye of the Storm
managed to make any impact in Modern.
All this might just change with the upcoming
set, Secrets of Strixhaven! With two upcoming Planeswalker, one of them a newly
introduced character, Wizards of the Coast might just be bringing Planeswalkers
back!
The first Planeswalker we are introduced to is a familiar face in a not-so-familiar getup! Ral is already a force to be reckoned with in the current meta as one of the best Planeswalker in the current Izzet Prowess shell with Ral, Crackling Wit! In the time since we last saw him, he seems to have shed not only his fur but also his usual Blue and Red colours.
In Secrets of Strixhaven, we see mono-black Ral Zarek, Guest Lecturer, bringing to the table a planeswalker with a cheap mana cost of only 3 CMC. He also brings 4 abilities, each powerful by itself, but even more so together.
Ral’s first ability at +1 allows you to
surveil 2, which is already an extremely useful ability. It becomes even better
when you realise that Ral Zarek, Guest Lecturer is made for reanimator
decks, making the surveil a free and easy way to throw your best creatures into
the graveyard. Then his -1 ability allows you to force an opponent to discard a
card in their hand while also giving the option to target yourself if you need
to discard a card for reanimation. These two abilities separately would already
be extremely useful for any re-animator decks, much more so together.
His -2 ability also allows you to reanimate a creature with Mana Value 3 or less. This ability can be extremely useful especially in a format such as Standard where it is an extremely fast meta with many powerful small creatures. With the ability to re-animate these threats, not only can it impact the board state but also bring pressure to your opponent. The true eye-catcher of Ral Zarek, Guest Lecturer however would be his ultimate that lets you skip up to 5 of your opponent's turn albeit based on winning coin flips. Even though there is a touch of randomness, but this ability would be a first of its kind as there is currently in the colour Black.
A deck built with his ultimate in mind might be do-able even in Standard, with cards like Innkeeper's Talent and Doubling Season available in the current rotation. However, this ability will likely be unable to make any impact on the meta but will definitely serve as a strong removal check.
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Next, let’s talk about the exciting new Planewalker who is making his debut in this set, Dellian Fel. He brings with him a new Planeswalker subtype, Dellian, and the promise that we might just see more Planeswalker even after the introduction of the omenpaths.
Professor Dellian Fel is a 4 CMC Planeswalker in Black and Green colours. His cost is a bit
more expensive however he also starts with 5 loyalty counters, making him much
more usable compared to Ral Zarek, Guest Lecturer. Especially since he
is in green, it would be easy to ramp into him by turn 3 with cards like Llanowar
Elves.
His first ability also lets you increase his loyalty counter by 2 and increase life. With this ability, it is possible to push him up to 7 counters in the next turn, which then lets you use his -6 ultimate one turn after he is played. Potentially, this could mean that by turn 4, you will already have his ultimate emblem. This makes the card extremely powerful, especially since emblems are not removable but also stackable.
His other two skills are also quite strong by itself, with the 0 skill giving you card advantage for almost no cost and the -3 a repeatable removal. In the right deck, he can be extremely powerful. It would not be surprising if a lifegain deck were to gain meta relevance, especially since lifegain decks were already quite popular to begin with.
Secrets of Strixhaven brings with it many
interesting new and old mechanics. With quasi reprints of some of the most
powerful cards in the history of Magic the Gathering, and the interesting new
ways to reuse old mechanics, this is a set not to be missed!
Join us during the
Secret of Strixhaven prerelease weekend on 17th, 18th and 19th April 2026 as we crack open
some prerelease kits and unleash some of the best cards printed yet!
For the full event details: CLICK HERE!
Until then, thank you for reading and look forward to new articles coming over the yonder soon!
Written by:
Rozenbeth Chin